It seems that Bodog has won one of their battles for once. On November 28, a federal magistrate judge in Las Vegas ruled in the case 1st Technology, LLC vs. Bodog Entertainment Group, S.A. The judge ruled in favor of a motion that was filed by the defense team stating that the Bodog Entertainment Group is not a resident of Nevada and so they are not subject to examination under Nevada law.
Calvin Ayre, who is the founder of Bodog, also got some good news on November 28. The judged ruled that Ayre also is not required to show up for examination because he too is not a resident of Nevada. It should be noted that Bodog is unrelated to Bodog Entertainment Group.
In general this is a good step for Bodog and the contempt motion that was filed by 1st Technology, LLC, was successfully reprimanded.
Ayre has said that this has been an interesting case and as it continues there seems to be plenty of gripping facts emerging. He went on to say that with the most recent ruling in favor of the defense, he is very happy that it was made clear by the judge that he, by law, couldn’t be in contempt of any order from the Nevada court.
During this case there were a number of details that came out that importantly reiterated the fact that the asset-less defendant, Bodog Entertainment Group S.A., is now an invalid company which was used to provide domain management services to various Bodog businesses. This right has now been removed and Bodog is now in the process of requiring Bodog Entertainment Group, S.A. to stop using Bodog and related trademarks.
Right now there is also a similar case involving Bodog in the state of Washington where the defense lawyers are also in the process of looking for clarity on the law of domain name ownership rights and whether domain names are property that can be subject to confiscation to satisfy a judgment. 1st Technology, LLC is also behind this case.
Bodog’s defense team is hoping that domain names are not property that can be seized. The outcome of that case will have serious implications for domains owners in the future.
In Virginia it has already been found that domain names are not seizable assets and thus like trademarks are not subject to seizure. There has been no other instance that is known where an operating international company has had their domain names seized and shut down in the U.S. without notice, which is what happened to Bodog Entertainment Group, S.A.